


Parental Problems

by Citron0



Series: here's all the stuff I never wanted to post [1]
Category: Lego Ninjago, The LEGO Ninjago Movie (2017)
Genre: Gen, I don't have time for tags
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:54:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,864
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28776405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Citron0/pseuds/Citron0
Summary: No one knows who Lloyd's father is except for Wu, Koko and, well, his father.
Series: here's all the stuff I never wanted to post [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2109798
Comments: 4
Kudos: 21





	Parental Problems

**Author's Note:**

> I never wanted to post this until I got enough in on it, but I don't want it to be lost to time either. I'm not bothering to edit or check anything so sorry if there's typos n stuff.

Lloyd IronDragon was living the life. His mom was a bit of a celebrity, you see. well lady iron Dragon herself is retired for the time being, she worked in a boba shop as the manager. Her son got the best of everything, but he wondered if it would be any different if his mom wasn't a warrior from the west. Were any of his friends actually his friends or his friends because his mom was Lady IronDragon? Zane was probably still his friend, Kai too. Though Chen, he was clearly only associating with him for the boost it give the head cheerleader's popularity.  
Lloyd was typically pretty open with his mom, Koko, but he kept one particular fact to himself: he was a ninja, the Green Ninja, in fact. This old man, named only Wu or Wu Garmadon depending on who you ask, approached him when he entered high school. Told him that he was getting too old to fight off Garmadon's army and wanted a Secret Ninja Force. Lloyd had always been a fan of explosions and fireworks so he agreed to make some mechs for the other recruits, he competed with Jay in robotics competitions in middle school, it couldn't be that different. Besides, seeing as Lady IronDragon was this big-time warrior, he sort of owed it to her to fight in her place. Wu hadn't really told them much about himself, only that he was a Spinjitzu master and Garmadon's brother.  
"Wait, you're Garmadon's brother?" He nodded.  
"That's rough, man. No wonder why you fight him." Wu scrutinized him for a moment before pulling out his flute-staff.  
"Yes, I feel obligated to stop him, as you do, I assume."  
He rubbed the back of his neck, "Er, yeah, I guess."   
He twirled a lock of his golden blond hair, "My mom is something to live up to." Wu's expression was unreadable, he always was a bit cryptic with his teachings.  
Battling Garmadon himself, wasn't necessarily a cakewalk; but, okay, yes, it was certainly one.   
He was mostly indifferent towards him, a little irritated that he didn't give up after 500+ attempts, but otherwise indifferent.  
"Don't you ever get tired of this, Garmadon? Like, can't you see you're never going to win?" He said to him one day, mostly focusing on shooting down his men like the alien ships in Galego.  
"No, I won't stop until I've conquered Ninjago City."  
"I don't know why you don't just quit and leave Ninjago."  
"Because there's something very, very special here."  
"What?"  
"I'm gonna let the walls down for just a second, Green Ninja,"  
"Uh, okay?"  
"About 16 years ago, I lost something I should have never given up. I had this guitar in college and I traded it stupidly for like a jacket or something."  
"That's what you were referring to?"  
"Yeah, what else would I be referring to?"  
"I don't know, that just doesn't sound like much of reason to keep attacking Ninjago. Is that really your only connection to this city?"  
"There is someone in this city, I loved very much," Lloyd rolled his eyes, "I remember when I first laid eyes on him, the last time I saw him was, I guess 16 years ago too, I was just an irresponsible kid, and I,"  
"I seriously doubt that," Lloyd deadpanned.  
"It was this guy who made probably the best sushi I've ever had in my life. You never knew what was coming next, and you didn't even order. It was one of those places where you don't even get a menu."  
"Omakase?" Were they really still having this conversation?  
"Is that the name of the place?"  
"No, that just means you don't choose, he chooses,"  
"That is it, that's the name of the place,"  
"Anyway, if that's it, let's-,"  
"There was a boy, that I had in my life,"  
"Okay, now I know you've been making this all up."  
"What?"  
"There's no way you have a kid."   
"I did have a son,"  
He grumbled dismissively, "I don't care. I knew I should've passed on taking you on today. Ugh.  
Time to finish this," he fired just enough missiles to decimate his shark mech. It was just a pile of scrap when he was done with it, or it would've been had it not been for its heavy shielding. He felt good, in those few seconds of anticipation. When the smoke cleared, Garmadon stood in a protective shield. He threw something, shouting "Shields down, shields up!"  
Lloyd scrambled to catch the projectile, only to fall on his face.  
"Ugh," he rubbed his nose from over the shawl, sitting up.  
Garmadon's remaining soldiers laughed with him, "Did you see that? Who taught you how to catch, man?" Lloyd looked away, trying not to think about that dad he never knew.  
"Nice catch, loser." Laughed one of his generals.  
The Green Ninja rubbed his arm, embarrassed, "No one!" He tried to cover his outburst, "I'm more of a throwing guy, actually." He picked up the spherical bomb up to proof his point, and chunked it at him. He used too much force and it slammed down in front of the shielded, four-armed man blowing up. If it weren't for the ear plugs Master Wu gave him, he probably would've gone deaf in his first year of fighting that jerk.  
"I see that, Green Ninja, you've proven your point."  
"Yeah, ahem, are you gonna leave Ninjago now or what? We've been at this for at least an hour."  
"1 hour, 49 minutes and 38 seconds." Zane proclaimed from the coms.  
"2 hours! Dang, no wonder I'm so hungry." He didn't even eat breakfast before they left. Good thing Cole convinced Wu that they could bring food with them for snacking. Lloyd pulled out a stick of jerky. He lifted his shawl a little to tuck the food item into, from Garmadon's lower position, he could see the how sharp his teeth were. Lloyd's canines were bigger than average, but it wasn't a big deal. His mom said he inherited it from her father like his blond hair. Disclaimer: she was lying, but he didn't know that.  
Garmadon was silent, which was weird for him, he usually never stops talking, "Did you want some or something, why are you staring at me like that?" He paused hopeful, "Or, are you thinking about leaving for good?"  
Garmadon blinked out of his reverie, "No, I'll be back soon, Green Ninja," He prepped his mech for retreat, "When I return, I'll have something big, something wicked in store. Something that'll bring Ninjago City to its knees!" He bellowed out a laugh, "Wahaha!" Lloyd rolled his eyes with a shrug, unfazed, "Well, we'll be waiting, I guess."  
"Can't you pretend to care more, Green Ninja?"  
"Uh, no? Just get of Ninjago already," He took another bite from the jerky.  
"Fine, geez, what a killjoy," he mumbled as he left.  
He activated autopilot and set a course back to base after making sure the creep was going back to his volcano just beyond the beach.  
Lloyd attempted to meditate as the other ninja congratulated themselves. School had been cancelled for the rest of the day, so he left after the training and lecture from Master Wu.  
"That dude doesn't quit," he yawned.  
"It sucks you had to fight him on your birthday, Lloyd."  
"Not a big deal. He attacks multiple times a week; I'd be surprised if he didn't."  
"Lloyd, there's something I haven't told you," started Wu.  
"Not now, Sensei, I gotta go home; my mom's probably waiting."  
Wu stroked the holes in his staff as he watched Lloyd leave.

Lloyd managed to get back to the apartment- it was more of a condo really- just a couple of minutes before his mom did. Koko looked relieved that he was home.  
"How was school?"  
"Brief. You know, due to that Garmadon guy attacking again."  
"Lloyd,"  
"Yeah, Mom?"  
"Oh, it's nothing, I bought more dumplings for your special day."  
"Yeah, alright!" he fist pumped, "Thanks, I'm gonna be in my room doing homework if you need me."  
She smiled at his initiative, "Okay, it'll be ready in a few." She set some water to boil and checked on the cake she had in the fridge.   
"Still there, good." She sighed as she closed it. She could tell Lloyd about his father when he's older, she's been putting this off for so long but he's been better for it. He doesn't have to worry about that man being his father, she should probably keep it that way. No need to burst his bubble, that's a bit of a bombshell to drop on his birthday.  
"Lloyd, dinner's ready!"  
"Coming!"  
Lloyd wolfed down his food almost forgetting to savor it, "You think Garmadon will stop attacking someday?"  
"I don't know, he's very steadfast." She tapped her chopsticks on her plate.  
"How did you fight him off back in the day?"  
"Well," she figured she could tell him this much, "they say the best way to defeat your enemy is to befriend them."  
"Wait, you were friends with him?"  
"Oh yeah, like peanut butter and jelly. When he said he wanted to take over the world, I thought it was just an expression. I thought," she folded the napkin on her lap, "I thought one day, he'd be satisfied."  
Lloyd ate another dumpling and leaned back in his chair, "Yeah, doesn't he rule like all of rural Ninjago?"  
"Just about, but enough about him, what about you? Learn anything interesting in school? What do you wanna do when you grow up?"  
"Uh, I don't know," he scratched the back of his head, "Maybe robotics? It's fun and I'm good at it. They called me a Master Builder, that's cool, right?"  
"That is cool, kiddo. You could probably work for that new Borg company that popped up. I'm sure it'll pay well."  
"Ha, yeah, probably."  
"I'm glad you found something you really like, this place is so much better from where we moved from."  
"Moved? I thought you grew up here?"  
"No, that's just the story they feed Press. I'm from a rural mountain village in the northwest. I had been traveling to fight off Garmadon's forces back when he still used those skeletons."  
"That's so gross! Did he employ the undead?"  
"Well, you wouldn't have to pay them!" She laughed like she referencing an inside joke. She really was an old friend of his, Lloyd could barely believe it. That old dude was probably lonely, that's why he was talking to him so much today. It wasn't his problem to fix, Lloyd's job as the Green Ninja was to defeat him, that guy was Evil with a capital E.  
Koko held her smile, soft and nostalgic, "Thank you, Lloyd."  
"For what?"  
"For listening, I've missed those days, but good came from them." She ruffled his hair, no, she didn't regret being with Garmadon for a second.  
"How so?"  
"Well, that's a story for another time."  
He whined, "Ah, Mom, really?" She stood up, grabbing the cake from the refrigerator, lighting the candles.   
"It's time to sing Happy Birthday, Lloyd!" She placed the two layered cake in the center of the table and sang the song while clapping. Pulling out her phone, she took a picture.  
"Make a wish, Lloyd."  
He closed his eyes, 'I wish Garmadon would stop trying to conquer Ninjago.'  
He blew out the candles and ate his slice before retreating to his room. The night went by normally, with him spending too much time on his phone looking at videos of explosions robots, not nindroids.   
'Grapes in a microwave do what? Whoa!'

The next morning, Lloyd had just made it to school before Garmadon attacked again. Garmadon's mech was enormous! It was as big as a building, his missiles and bombs had no effect on him, he was doing more damage to the city than he was to Garmadon. Garmadon's mecha crunched the gears of his dragon mech in a chokehold. That would take a while to rebuild. Garmadon had successfully reached the top of the Mayor's tower and had planted his flag. Lloyd couldn't do anything to stop him. By the severely outdated rules of old Ninjago, he legally had control over the city.   
Lloyd pressed the eject button and landed near the mech itself. He was terrified as he held in place by his generals. Garmadon strutted up to him with a smirk. It was too sudden, too much, had he been waiting until the Ninja had a false sense of security before sending forth his full armed forces.   
They lost! How could they lose!  
"Are you gonna cry?" He jolted into awareness at the sound of Garmadon's voice.  
One of his hired hands commented, "I bet he's gonna cry."  
He tried to jostle them off, snarling, "I'm not! I'll stop you, Garmadon, as long as I still live, I will put an end to your tyranny."  
"Well, we can't have that, now can we?" Garmadon approached him and snatched his mask. He was staring at him weird again, all of them were staring at him.  
"Will you quit staring at me!"  
"La-loyd?"  
It's not too weird for someone to recognize him, "It's pronounced Lloyd." He corrected.  
"No, L-L-O-Y-D, I named you."  
"What the heck are you talking about!? Have you lost your mind? I'm not your long lost kid."  
Garmadon took off his helmet, revealing tow blond hair, "Look, same hair."  
"Anyone can be blond."  
"No, well what about your teeth?"  
Abruptly insecure, he took as much of a step back as he could, "What about them?" The edge of the rooftop felt closer than it was.  
"They're like mine," he smiled to show off his.  
Lloyd studied them for probably a second too long, "I don't see it."  
Garmadon pulled at Lloyd's shirt, "Hey, back off! I told you, I'm not your kid. Even," he could barely say it, the thought itself was revolting, "Even if I was, I wouldn't want to be." He pushed him back, but that guy has so many arms, that it was nearly impossible to get away. He had to do something he hadn't done since he was a toddler.  
"Hey! You bit me!" Lloyd rolled away, keeping low to the ground, eyes darting around for some form of cover. Lloyd didn't bite hard enough to get any blood in his mouth.  
"My mom would never," he trailed off, shaking his fists, "she couldn't, you must've done something, if-," he shook his head in denial once more.  
He swallowed, "If you're telling the truth, why didn't anyone tell me? Wouldn't I have the right to know?" Wu might, but his mom, she said they were only friends. Maybe it was an accident? Zane sent him a text once about how people can get pregnant without doing the, uh, intercourse. Was a political play? Get Koko pregnant and she'll settle down to raise her kid right? Did he rape her? Was that why Koko fled?   
He must've said that last part aloud because Garmadon stilled and barked out defensively, "No, we were married!"   
He put one of his hands in his pant pocket and pulled out a ring, "See?" It was white with Garmadon etched into the underside in black. His mother wore a black ring from time to time, but it wasn't an old wedding ring, was it?  
"That's-that's just a ring, it could mean anything. Stop messing with me, I don't believe you."  
"La-loyd!" Lloyd didn't think about it, but he was practically the spitting image of his father, just without the four arms, red eyes, and dark as pitch skin. His eyes glowed faintly in the dark, he never questioned it, but could it be possible?  
He grit his teeth and jumped off the side, his foot was grappled by Lord Garmadon.  
He snapped with a growl, "You got what you wanted, now go to Omakase or whatever and leave me alone!" That time, Lloyd finally did get to escape. He went straight to the warehouse to talk to a certain sensei.  
"Master?" Lloyd called out. He heard the clunks of Wu's bo staff and the scraping of steel.  
Wu was fighting off Garmadon's troops on the Bounty. Lloyd felt so exposed when he walked out there without his mask on.  
The Generals glanced at him and spoke amongst themselves, "Is that the boss's kid?"  
"He looks just like him."  
Lloyd flushed at the comparison, "Wuh- No, I don't look anything like him, and he's not my dad!"  
Wu pushed them back and turned to Lloyd, "That's what I wanted to talk to you about yesterday."  
"Ugh, no," Lloyd whimpered, "not you too."  
"It's true, Nephew, I am your uncle."  
"No, this-this has to be a prank."  
"Perhaps you should join me when I go to get the Ultimate-ultimate weapon, there's something there you should see." He wanted to punch something so badly, good thing those Generals were right there. He punched and punched and punched until his knuckles bled. Why couldn't they just go away? He didn't care about Garmadon, why were they taunting him about this? He wanted a dad figure in his life so much when he was younger, he was over it. He was over it! He let out a roar as he continued and tears pooled around his eyes.  
He would've kept pounding through the group blindly if he hadn't been pulled away.  
"There, there," A voice cooed, "it's alright now." A hand stroked his locks despite there being two that were restraining him, oh no.  
"That kid's as vicious as his old man."  
"Shh, not so loud."  
"Did you see his teeth?"  
"I knew the boss would respond to my text, and you guys said he wouldn't."  
"La-loyd, it's okay." He squirmed before the fatigue and pain made him nod off. The last thing he saw was the mild fear in Wu's eyes.

A couple of hours later, he woke up in a bed drenched in sweat. The comforter was aquatic themed, which wasn't reassuring. There were no windows in the room, which made a part of him anxious, was this an unusually plush jail cell?   
A glimpse at his hands revealed that his gloves were taken off and fresh bandages and gauze wrapped around his wounded areas. He really let himself lash out, huh? His mom told him a while back that he used to get into fights all the time in preschool, his babysitter Morro had gone home with a bruises on more than one occasion. He just had a lot of anger that he typically suppressed, but this Dad-thing was really grating on his nerves. And somehow, they got Wu to play with his emotions too!  
He had never seen Wu look like that before, Wu was always so guarded with his emotions.  
He narrowed his eyes at the bed in thought, if this was his prison, then anything of Garmadon's was worth trashing. He grunted as he lifted the bed, his arms were sore from thrashing so much. He fell back on the bed and curled into a ball, he was so tired. So, so very tired. 

He stirred at the sound of the door unlocking, "La-loyd?" Oh, bother. He pretended to still be asleep. Garmadon entered the room and locked the door, he sat on the ultramarine bed and grabbed the boy's hands. Taking off the bloodied wrappings and replacing them delicately. Lloyd would open his eyes the slightest bit when he thought Garmadon wasn't watching.   
Pupils big like a cat's, he studied what was happening beside him, 'Why was he doing this?' Surely one of his generals could've sufficed?  
"La-loyd, I can see you staring."  
Lloyd jolted with a growing frown of annoyance, "My name's Lloyd," he yawned, "Stop calling me 'Luh-loyd.'"  
"It's your name."  
"My name is Lloyd IronDragon, not whatever the heck you're going on about."  
"It's on your birth certificate," he handed Lloyd a paper and his eyes darted across it. Yes, that was his birthday and his mother's name. This, he swallowed, this looked official, "Did you fake this?" The boy looked pale.   
"See," Garmadon pointed to his name, "'La-loyd Montgomery Garmadon,'" it didn't say that, "Two L's! Kokes never bother to change it legally, just lied about it, and they made you a new one."  
"Please, leave me alone."  
"Still tired? I guess growing boys need their rest." Garmadon tapped the area under Lloyd's pits, feeling for something.  
Lloyd was ticklish there, he tried his best not to show that by covering his face, "St-stop."  
"In a second, I need to see how far along you are."  
"You say that like I'm pregnant."  
He laughed, "That's not a poor comparison, maybe I should just get you an MRI like your mother wanted me to do, since you're awake and everything."  
"Uh,"  
"You know, when I was your age, we didn't have MRI machines, I had to break my bones over and over because I ripped them off and they had to regrow."  
"What the heck are you talking about," he sat up and lightly pushed Garmadon away, "and why are you telling me?"  
"How about we get you that MRI first, son, and we can worry about that later." Garmadon was pushing Lloyd out of the room, he was in pajamas, but he didn't remember putting them on.  
He rushed up to his mom the second he saw her, "Mom! What's going on? I don't understand."  
"Lloyd," she looked him over, "I think we need to talk about something, something I wanted to spare you from."  
"Um, what is it?"  
"Garmadon's correct," Lloyd's lungs felt tight,  
"He is your father," Lloyd spared a glance at his escort who gave him a grin and a thumbs up.  
"I'm sorry, you had to find out at all, if I had been public about it, I was certain everyone would bully you."  
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you about being the Green Ninja too, I was- I didn't want you to worry about me."  
"Lloyd, I'm your mother; I'm going to worry about you no matter what. I normally trust you to stay safe, but," she motioned to his hands, "what happened?"  
"I,"  
Garmadon interrupted grabbing Lloyd's shoulders from behind with a prideful look in his eyes, "He punched hard enough to send my men to the infirmary! He had so much fire, Kokes, you should've seen it! No wonder why he's growing them in now, there's a lot of hatred in his heart."  
"What are you talking about? Lloyd is a good kid."  
"Hatred is universal, right, La-loyd?"  
Lloyd was averting his eyes from them,  
"So who's the lucky foe?"  
"How can you not be angry that people were lying to you your whole life, your family lied to you. All I feel is this gnawing anger at the universe for letting me be born and denying me a dad."  
"I-,"  
"No, you are not a dad; you are just some weirdo I know from work." The subtext of, "We aren't family," didn't need to be said, it was felt.  
"I'm so done with this."

**Author's Note:**

> Fitting last sentence lol.  
> actual day of writing: 12/1/2020


End file.
